Business News

American Augers has promoted Rich Prosser to North American sales manager. He will supervise the North American sales team as well as the overall presence of American Augers throughout the region.

Kurt Moeller and Jeff Wright have joined Astec Underground as territory managers. Moeller will handle sales of Trencor trenchers east of the Mississippi River and in Canada. Wright will be responsible for the sales of the new Astec DP 2000 Double Pumper throughout the United States.

The Lincoln Electric Company has promoted Bruce Chantry to director of marketing, North America. He will oversee all core functions for Lincoln Electric’s North American marketing efforts, including industry segment management, product management, advertising, web development, creative services, events, trade shows and celebrity endorsements.

Caterpillar Inc. announced at the inaugural Natural Gas for High Horsepower Applications (HHP) Summit on Sept. 27 its intentions to go ‘all-in’ on natural gas and produce even more natural gas-fueled equipment and engines for a variety of applications. Joel Feucht, Caterpillar’s director of gas engine strategy for the energy and power systems businesses, made the announcement during his keynote address at the first-of-its-kind event that examined the economic and environmental benefits of using the clean-burning, domestically abundant natural gas in high horsepower applications.

LaValley Industries recently announced Kevin Allen as the company’s vice president of Pipeline Sales. Allen will be responsible for sales team leadership, distributor coordination, contributing in product and vendor selection, as well as development of new market opportunities.

Vermeer Texas-Louisiana, with 11 locations across Texas and southern Louisiana, recently held a groundbreaking ceremony for their San Antonio facility relocation. Located directly off the IH-35 corridor on the northeast side of San Antonio within the city limits of Selma, the new 34,000 sq- ft facility will be built on 8.2 acres and will open in early 2013. The store will include additional space for heavy equipment, parts inventory, service, training and sales. The new facility will replace the branch located on the east side of San Antonio, which has been open since 1978.

The groundbreaking event was hosted in partnership with the Randolph Metrocom Chamber of Commerce, which supports economic development and business growth in Selma and nine other local communities.

“We are extremely grateful for the support we have received from our San Antonio customer base over the past 30 years,” said Vice President Mike Bye. “We are investing in this new facility to demonstrate our continued commitment to better service our customers in the region.”

In 2013, in connection with the 25th anniversary of the Pipeline Pigging & Integrity Management Conference, Clarion and Tiratsoo Technical Conferences are introducing an annual award to recognize the achievements of pipeline professionals under 31 years of age. The winner will be announced and the award presented at the 2013 Pipeline Pigging & Integrity Management Conference on February 14, 2013.

TMK IPSCO, the North American division of global pipe manufacturer OAO TMK, hosted an open house at its new Research & Development Center located at 10120 Houston Oaks Drive in Houston, TX. During the event, visitors toured several areas of the facility, including the scanning electron microscope (SEM) lab, areas housing mechanical and collapse testing equipment, the corrosion lab and an area featuring connection load testers.

Prasenjit Adhikari, vice president and chief technology officer, TMK IPSCO, commented on the R&D Center’s development: “Since moving into the new center in early January, we have been busy acquiring many of the key pieces of testing equipment that will enable us to turn our R&D vision into a reality. We are excited to open our doors to showcase our industry-leading investments.”

The open house was well attended by TMK IPSCO’s key customers and suppliers from throughout the energy market. The event hosted key government officials, including Esperanza “Hope” Andrade, Texas Secretary of State; Texas State Senator Rodney Ellis; Houston City Council Members Oliver Pennington and Helena Brown; as well as Alexander Zakharov, Consul General of the Russian Federation in Houston. Members of the national and local media were also in attendance.

Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers sold more than US$76 million of trucks, earthmoving and mining equipment during the company’s two-day Grand Opening auction in Raleigh-Durham, NC on September 26 – 27, 2012. A ribbon-cutting ceremony held on the morning of the auction marked the official opening of the Raleigh-Durham facility located at exit 189 off I-85. The new facility replaces the company’s former auction site in Statesville, NC.

More than 2,100 bidders from 51 countries, including 48 U.S. states, registered on site or online to participate in the unreserved public auction. More than 60 Caterpillar D11 crawler tractors were purchased at the event. Buyers from as far away as Australia and Hong Kong purchased the D11s on auction day.

On the night prior to the auction, Ritchie Bros. held a charity auction at the new site. The unreserved auction of items donated by local businesses generated more than US$7,000 and all proceeds were donated to the Amran Shriners of North Carolina.

John Fairley, regional sales manager, Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers said, “We have been conducting unreserved public auctions in the state of North Carolina since 1983 and are very proud to form part of and have the privilege to give back to our community here in Raleigh-Durham.”

Huisman is building a new facility in Brazil that is located alongside the river Itajai-Açu in the city of Navegantes in Santa Catarina state. This facility will be used for the manufacturing of construction equipment for the Brazilian offshore market and is planned to be operational in the second half of 2013.

Wallace Equipment Ltd., exclusive dealer for John Deere construction and forestry equipment in the Canadian Maritimes, announced that they will sell, install, and service Leica Geosystems’ machine control solutions for automatic guidance of heavy equipment; this is the first such agreement reached in the Maritimes between any dealer and machine control vendor. Gérard Lamarre is the Leica Geosystems Machine Control Product Manager for the region, and was instrumental in bringing Wallace and Leica together.

Following a combined 65 years of service and contributions to the company, Caterpillar Inc. announced that Group Presidents Rich Lavin and Gerard Vittecoq have elected to retire. Lavin is a Caterpillar group president with responsibility for Construction Industries & Growth Markets. Vittecoq is a group president with responsibility for Energy & Power Systems. The company also announced that Caterpillar’s Board of Directors has appointed current Group President and CFO Ed Rapp as Lavin’s replacement. Brad Halverson will replace Rapp as a group president and CFO and Jim Umpleby has been appointed to replace Vittecoq as group president for Energy & Power Systems.

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